Midge the Neko - Boyxboy -complete-

Chapter 96 -- Carousel

"Okay, help me think. What would he do? Where would he go? If we stick with the 'he's just distracted and not taken' thing, what should we do?" Scott asked, holding onto Kelly's shoulders for support.

"He would notice eventually, right? Maybe we should go back to the food court since that's the last place we were together?"

"Yes, yes, okay. Food court. That makes sense." He grabbed Kelly's hand and practically dragged her back to the very table they'd sat in half an hour ago. "He's not here. What now? Can we page him? Don't they do intercom things?"

"Yes! Of course. Brilliant Sherlock. Look, I'll go and get him paged and tell him to come here, alright? So just get a cup of coffee or, no, strike that, something without caffeine and I'll be back." She didn't really wait for a response, just took off towards the gift-wrap table to find out where customer service was.

Ten minutes later Scott heard the intercom asking for Midge. It was fairly hard to understand but he thought that Midge's ears would definitely pick it up and even if he was in some wonderland of, who knows, Build-a-Bear or Lindt, it would get his attention and he would be back. Any minute. He would come rushing over saying 'I am sorry' any.... minute...." He stood up, figuring that even if he didn't spot Midge, it would be pretty easy for someone to find *him*. He saw movement and tried to hide his disappointment that it was Kelly who appeared.

"Not yet? He'll come Scott, he'll come. Just give him a little more time, the mall is huge.

"Yeah. He'll be here any minute and later we'll laugh at ourselves for being worried. Any.... minute now." He turned his head, constantly scanning the food court. "He's not coming" he whispered a few minutes later.

"Yes he is." Kelly tried to reassure him but as the minutes passed by, she got more and more worried herself.

"Maybe Zac and Lee and Jake and everyone could come help us look?"

"Absolutely. I'll call Jeremy, Avi, and Kevin. Wait, what should I tell them?"

"Just get them here and looking, have them call me if they find him. My phone is charged. God, I TOLD him today to not worry about his phone because we were just going to rehearsal and... FUCK. I am SO stupid. I told him I'd be with him Kake, I promised and he's----"

"He's lost. Just lost. Look, they'll start closing the stores soon so eventually he is going to be in this corridor, no matter how much fun he's having. Right? RIGHT?"

"Right. Yeah, okay. So they'll kick him out and we'll find him. Okay, I'm going make some calls. Let's do one more loop while we're calling. Maybe he'll see us? I can't sit here anymore." They walked the entire length of the second floor then went down the escalator. He started laughing, pointing at the carousel and heading for it.

"Scottland? Do you see him?"

"NO, but he's HERE, KK, of COURSE he's here! I'm so stupid, I forgot all about the carousel. The CAROUSEL Kake!!!"

"WHAT are you talking about?"

"Disneyland! I told him that if we ever got separated to meet at the carousel! The music is loud, he probably didn't hear the page. He's here, look around." He dropped Kelly's hand and started making a loop around the ride, calling Midge's name. For the first time in over an hour he relaxed, putting a smile on his face so Midge wouldn't be worried when he saw him. Five minutes and about 8 loops later, his smile was gone. "But where else could he be Kelly? He would have answered the page, or come here. Something's wrong."

"Don't think the worst. I just got a text that Jeremy's already here, we'll find him when it closes, okay?"

Zac and Lee, still dressed in a suit and tie, came around the corner. "Hey Scott I think you should sit tight somewhere. Don't they always say that if you're lost, don't move? What if it's a whole 'notes under the door thing' all over again?" Zac asked. "We'll split up and cover more ground than you could, anyway."

"Okay, yeah, you're right. Um, KK can you stay here and I'll go to the food court? Thanks guys, I owe you yet another one Zac."

Two hours later the mall was empty except for a few employees pulling down the store gates and heading towards their car. The entire assembled gang, all 8 of them, stood next to the carousel which had stopped running 15 minutes ago.

"Lee and I will take the third floor" Zac said.

"Me and Kev'll get the second" Avi offered.

"I'll take Jake and do the first" Jeremy said.

Then they were off, one last pass back and forth to cover the entire mall before mall security threw them out for the night. Scott put his head down in his hands. He didn't want to watch them return, one pair after another without his missing half. He felt Kelly's head rest against him, knew she was tired and sad and guilty but he couldn't find any energy to comfort her.

He heard and felt them come back, their mumbled 'sorry' and 'we can try again tomorrow' and 'is there anything else we can do' all blending together into one single word. 'NO'. He stood then and opened his mouth to scream. "MIIIIDGE!!!!" he bellowed, full strength.

"Time to go home Dot. Want to come with us? We can get your car tomorrow."

"No, I'm going home. Maybe he'll come home. Somehow."